e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Notes for Knight Digital Media Center Presentation on Congressional and Local Campaigning

April 24th, 2008

Along with Dennis Johnson, Karen Jagoda and Morra Aarons-Mele, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation this morning on congressional and local online campaigns for the assembled journalists at the Knight Digital Media Center’s symposium, Election ’08: Unleashing the Cyber-watchdogs (i.e., after a week of luxuriating in the California sun, it was time to sing for my supper and justify the trip). My notes are below; if they’re too cryptic, drop me a note for details.

How candidates are using the web

• find voters
• keep voters
• get them to do things

General

• more variation at congressional level than presidential, even more at the local level
• standard packages becoming available: DIA
• more experimentation from insurgents/challengers than the incumbents
• what you can see in public may not be the most important thing going on — don’t believe the hype!

Finding voters

• website as core
• going where they are: soc nets, online communities, blogs, search advertising
• new tools: video

Keeping voters

• using the channels their supporters use
• email, email, email — still the killer app

Mobilizing offline/online connection

• fundraising
• volunteer coordination
• distributed phone banks
• neighborhood activism: house parties, block walks
• GOTV

The natives are restless

• citizens are using new tools to shake up the process
• some of the most interesting stories will be there
• examples

Resources

• e.politics
• techpresident.com
• bivingsreport.com
• Wired/Threat Level
• The Caucus (Times), The Trail (Post)

– cpd

Robot-Selected "Related" Articles:

• Campaign Internet Staffers are Expected to Know Everything — and Still Live in a Box
• At Digital Media Conference
• Working with Local Bloggers
• Congressional Staff Find The Internet Not As Anonymous As It Looks
• Money Web: See Who’s Contributing to the Presidential Candidates, Social Network-Style